Audit partner comp non big 4?

http://www.accountancyage.com/digital_assets/8026/top_50_+_50_v5.pdf

May help, but still being updated for 2014 so not yet complete.

Ahh useful, thanks! Can we assume that Partners earn around 30-40% of the revenue they bring in? (Looking at average rev per partner).

It's very unpredictable and depends how well the firm does in a given year. The article linked above just goes to show (Big 4 aside) position in terms of revenue for the firm does not necessarily correlate to higher partner rewards. Some firms simply have more partners so they all earn less and vice versa.

Now, here's something else you may not be aware of. When a person becomes a partner, they have to buy their stake in the business. Their firm helps them set up the loan. So, remember you have to offset the loan against earnings for a while. Also, as a result of this offset and because income is based on profits and not a salary, sometimes directors earn more than the partners.

Big 4 partner base is higher than director base - profit share is on top so they always earn more. Worth noting not all partners even get a profit share, there are non-equity partners as well. Not sure if that's the same everywhere though.

Also bear in mind the buy-in is ultimately recovered.

I believe partners are only non-equity for their first year in the partnership, they get a slice after that. As far as I am aware, they don't actually pay the buy-in either, it is offered as a low interest "loan" from the firm.

Nope there's definitely long term non-equity partners, 100% confirmed. At Deloitte I believe they are donated by the B grade rather than A.

Really? That's news to me. Another reason why PwC is better

I'm sure it's all just friendly banter, I don't think anyone actually cares. However, when people leave for one of the 'lesser' big 4, people do tend to say things like "oh he couldn't get promoted here and they're desperate for people over there". There is some truth to that as senior managers do tend to leave for director roles at a competitor, right after getting passed over for promotion.

The thing about those figures shown in those rankings is that it lumps everyone together, there's no differentiation between audit and other partners.

However only about a 3rd of the Big Four's revenue comes from audit and generally the higher margin work is sitting in advisory. As such there can be quite a gap between the pay of an average partner vs an audit or advisory partner.

I would venture a guess that an audit partner is making a bit less than the average partner, however that isn't to say they aren't living the good life.

I wasn't aware of the non-equity partners - I would certainly expect them to receive more than the directors! I also wasn't aware that they took a base, although makes sense.

Generally, buy in is recoverable but it's not risk free (e.g. Andersen).

Some audit partners will earn more than partners in other services, it partly depends on the type of audit work they're doing. Financial services auditors might earn a good sum for example.

True, but isn't advisory (by advisory are you talking about consulting or CF/TAS?) much less secure? Audits are a legal requirement (for big enterprise) and thus one could be more assured about business coming in (pun intended) when compared to the advisory line?

Also I've heard Auditors get the pick of the clients, the other service lines have to avoid a conflict of interest.

I would therefore expect higher comp for such a position because come a recession (which is always very likely in zombie economies such as US/Uk); you have to account for the risk of becoming unemployed.

What do you think the difference would be between the partners in comp btw?

I agree to an extent. Audit is more secure/guaranteed, however tendering is now ever increasing so more effort is being put into bidding now. However as the big jobs will still usually go to one of the Big 4, that is unlikely to change the status quo.

And I'm afraid you got the conflict of interest thing the other way around. Its audit that has to be fiercely independent and make sure that they can offer services to a client (though the other service lines have that too). Sometimes I've heard that firm wide decisions are made on whether to sell advisory or audit services to a specific client as the profits from the two are being weighed against one another.

And though the risk of redundancy is there, the recession didn't produce nearly as many Big 4 redundancies as it did elsewhere in finance.

Yeah I've seen the new regulation about the tendering! Not great for Auditors!

I've also heard that its is much easier to make the jump to partner as an Auditor than it is the other way around as there is less of a bottleneck? I've also heard the advisory partners are a few years older on average?